Generally, hospital beds provide for inclination of both the head and foot sections of the bed. As far as is known by the applicant, such inclination is obtained by inclining the head or foot mattress support sections which are pivotally connected to the bed's main frame. Inclination of either the head or foot section provides no configuration of the bed mattress whereby a hospital attendant may position a bedpan or bathtub beneath the patient without physically lifting or moving the patient.
Generally, prior art beds, such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 933,323; 1,815,742; 2,445,158; 4,136,409; 4,139,917; and 4,183,109 have all provided means for variably adjusting mattress support sections of a hospital bed. However, only U.S. Pat. Nos. 933,323 and 4,139,917 were capable of also being positioned such that a bedpan could be placed beneath a patient without having to physically lift or move the patient. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 933,323 obtained such result by lowering a middle mattress support section while retaining the head and foot mattress support sections in a fixed vertical position. Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 933,323 required the use of three separate bed mattresses, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,917 obtained such a configuration by the combined utilization of separate mattresses with an indented middle mattress and the lowering of the foot mattress support section and elevating the middle mattress support section.